Queensland Milk Bank calls for donations in lead up to Christmas as lifesaving liquid also heads to Tasmania

IN JUST five years, a Brisbane-based “bank” has grown into Australia’s largest supplier of donated breast milk, providing the lifesaving liquid to hospitals as far south as Hobart and as far north as Cairns.

QUEENSLAND is exporting milk to Tasmania; breast milk, that is.

In five years, the Brisbane-based Queensland Milk Bank has grown into Australia’s largest supplier of donated breast milk, providing the lifesaving liquid to hospitals as far south as Hobart and as far north as Cairns.

Bank medical director, neonatologist Pieter Koorts, said the latest research showed feeding extremely premature babies a mix of probiotics and donated breast milk, rather than formula, improved survival rates by almost 70 per cent.

Dr Koorts, the director of neonatology at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, where the bank is based, said a mother’s own breast milk was always the best option but about a third of women were unable to produce enough for their premature babies.

“In the past, we used to give them formula, but we know that cow’s milk protein in any form is not good for a premature baby,” he said.

Dr Koorts said giving extremely preterm babies a cocktail of donated breast milk and probiotics, to improve their gut health, slashed their chances of developing necrotising enterocolitis, which is a serious condition in which parts of the bowel die.

It also reduced their risk of septicaemia or severe blood poisoning.

Haylee Spreadborough with son Edward, 12 weeks, who relied on donor breast milk.

Edward Maher, who was born at just 26 weeks’ gestation on September 2, is one of more than 1400 premature babies who have received donor breast milk from the Queensland Milk Bank since it began in 2012.

“Given the situation, and how stressed and emotional I was, my body just wasn’t producing what it needed to at the time,” his Mum Haylee Spreadborough said. “We needed donor milk for the first week and then I was able to produce enough for him to come off the donor milk. Now, we’re producing over double what he needs in a day and so we’ve got plenty to spare.”

Ms Spreadborough, 26, of Wurtulla, on the Sunshine Coast, donates her spare breast milk back to the milk bank.

The Queensland Milk Bank handles more than 1000 litres of donated breast milk a year. The milk is pasteurised to ensure it does not contain bacteria or viruses. Since its inception, more than 400 women have donated breast milk, including some mothers whose babies have died.

Clinical nurse consultant Karen Langford, who runs the bank, said it provided breast milk to nine Queensland hospitals: the RBWH, Mater Mothers, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast university hospitals, Caboolture, Redcliffe, Greenslopes Private and the Wesley.

She said women could donate breast milk from throughout the state and she was particularly keen to hear from breastfeeding mothers in the lead-up to Christmas and new year when deposits were traditionally low.

They can contact her via the Queensland Milk Bank Facebook page, by phoning 3646 0542 or by sending an email to [e-mail].